I remember seeing the ashes of everything I ever knew, float down to the blackened earth beneath me. The doctor had warned us that we were this world’s only hope, but how could he be sure? With our rare blood type, he told us we would be immune to the Last Plague and responsible for saving what we could from our crumbling world. I knew now that nothing the doctor said, could ever prepare me for what I saw on the Last Day.

My name is Evelyn Marie Johnson. And this is how I saved our world.

Like most girls in Boston, I spent my Thanksgiving break drinking Starbucks and wearing my Ugg boots and infinity scarves. As a junior in highschool, it was a rare occasion when I finally got to catch a break. Between SATs and other college admission tests, academics were keeping me on my toes. To take advantage of my glorious holiday, I was going out to do something for which I didn’t even volunteer. What else is new?

“Mom,” I called, bounding down the stairs. “I’m going to the park! I’ll be back by five!” I gritted my teeth. I hated all the lying I’d been doing lately.

“Hold on a second, Eve!” My ever-meddlesome mother stopped me at the bottom of the staircase, “Who all is going with you to the ‘park’?” She crossed her arms and had a doubtful air about her.

Gosh, I thought to myself. If she only knew why I had to leave...

Instead of putting up a fight, I simply sighed and brushed past my mom. I don’t think I could stand muttering one more lie. After the first time I snuck out, my mom and I didn’t really see eye-to-eye on, well...anything. She could never know why I was always gone. She’d never agree. “Just some girls from school, Mom.” I said.

She looked like she wanted to say more, but she swiftly turned on her heel and walked out. Mom knew I wasn’t telling the truth, but she had recently given up on me. Eh, I can live with that. I thought. But I knew deep down that I was lying...again.

I pulled my dark hair back into a ponytail and shoved on some shoes. I had to go see the doctor. Adam and I were responsible for getting to him every week no matter what we had to say to get there. It sounded pretty sketchy, but I saw the statistics myself. I knew we were the world’s only chance. This better be worth it. I shook my head as I jogged over to my car.

The hospital wasn’t anything special; standard, gray, concrete walls that held nothing more than a few bustling nurses in their multi-colored scrubs and sick patients with their anxious family members. It wasn’t too big, but everyone in the Northeast knew that they had the best surgeons in the country. That wasn’t why I was there, however, so I dashed past all of the rooms on level 10 to go into the office where more despair was held than could ever be known to any of the sick patients in this place.

The doctor was just as normal-looking as the hospital building; tall, with sandy blond hair that had recently been sprinkled with flecks of gray. His eyes were always set in a look of cold concentration and even since the last week that I saw him, he looked about a twenty years older. He rubbed his weary face and sighed. Yeah, I’m not looking forward to this. I groaned.

“Hey, Eeyore!” I said cheerily with a fake, plastered smile on my face. He was really asking for the nickname with how grumpy he was all the time. Plus, the boring name ‘Doctor Marshall’ just wasn’t doing it for me anymore.

“We really don’t have time for this, Evelyn.” He didn’t even look up.

“Yeah, I know, Doc.” I said softly. “So what’s the news?”

“To be honest, it’s not looking too good. The lab results came back. Your blood type, h/h, was perfectly immune to the particle of the suspected virus. Adam’s too. The team of scientists I was working with are struggling to create either the virus or the antibody in your blood into a vaccine. We’ve got the best of the best up there and they won’t give up until they find a cure. But, the two of you won’t have enough blood to give in such a short amount of time to let the vaccination set and be distributed. The mutant form of H5N1 won’t work in any vaccination solution so far. We’re running out of time. We called our government official guy today and he said that the meetings and councils can’t think of any ideas either.” He then continued to spew out more and more facts and numbers. But, I couldn’t hear him. This is insane! I shakily sat down to slow my pounding heart. Everyone’s gonna die.